Altitude with Cities

Zem · November 2009

I've been making some cities here and there. I'm not spending a lot of time on them since they will take up no more than two gaming sessions, so they aren't that great. But anyway, the point is I'm trying to figure out how to do altitude. In my first one the city was in a sandy/rocky valley. I wasn't too upset with how it turned out, which just involved three layers of contours. It could have been better, but I just went on with it.

Then I tried making a walled town sitting on top of a grassy hill. I tried fading darker, I tried fading lighter... blah. It's good enough for how long I need it, but I think this is going to continue to be an issue.

http://www.tyrion.net/gaming/Jifarah.pdf
http://tyrion.net/Hilltop.BMP

I'm an engineer. Art isn't my thing. I just don't know how to make it look like a hill from directly overhead. Any help?

Thanks

JimP · November 2009

Use different colors, or bitmap fills, for each contour level.

I have a template with contour areas. zero to 2500 feet, 2501 to 5000 feet. etc. And 4 for sea depths.

Here is the page, you wil need the bitmap fills linked on that page as well.

Ralf · November 2009

Doing contours growing lighter as elevation increases is certainly the best basic way. The more the better, although you might need to create additional bitmap fills (in lighter shades) if you want to use CD3 fills. Another option is to use solid white polygons on sheets with high transparency.

Another way is to play around with lighted bevels (sheet effect). See the attached picture.

Ralf · November 2009

Here is the CC3 file with the above example, in case you want to check out the sheet effect settings.

rikski · November 2009

Another way is to use the Bevel effect, its quite easy if you don't want to spend much time on it

Nasty · November 2009

You I was wondering this too. Thanks folks!

Zem · November 2009

Jim, do you have a map made with those contours? I'm curious to see what it looks like.

I think what I end up doing will depend on the scale. Regional maps will have contours, and city maps will look something like what Ralf did.

JimP · November 2009

Sure, World all 12 down to about row E. I haven't got to this map yet, so some of it is my old style. All of the Mountains of Death should have been converted to CC3 and that contour style. Just click on one and download the zip. You'll need to install the bitmap fills as well. I have completed checking, etc. world all 01 and world all02, but there isn't the range of heights on those there is on world al 12.

CC3\Bitmaps\Tiles\custom is where I have the bitmap fills on my install.

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Altitude with Cities

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